Masticatory muscle activity in normal individuals using two types of anterior deprogrammers – A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Clinical procedures:

Maxillary and mandibular impressions will be made for all the participants using Alginate impression material and the respective casts will be obtained. The casts will be articulated in maximal intercuspation on an articulator. Lucia Jig and Kois deprogrammer will be fabricated on the dental casts using self-cure acrylic material using standard protocols. Each participant will be allotted to the respective intervention groups as described previously.

Baseline activity of muscles (EMG) temporalis and masseter will be determined before insertion of the deprogrammers. Volunteers will be randomly given two types of deprogrammers - Lucia Jig and the Kois Deprogrammer. Deprogramming will be done for 30 minutes or till the time the volunteers give a precise centric point using an articulating paper.After deprogramming, the EMG activities of temporalis and masseter will be assessed again and recorded.

After a wash-out period of 1 week the volunteers will be allotted to the second intervention. Again, the volunteers’ base line muscle activity will be recorded, before the intervention. After insertion of the appliance, deprogramming will be done as described earlier and the muscle activities will be recorded.